Special Publication 800-85A-1 PIV Card Application & Middleware Interface Test Guidelines
5. Test Assertions
Test assertions are statements of behavior, action, or condition that can be measured or tested.
They provide the procedures to guide the tester in executing and managing the test. They
include the purpose of the test, starting conditions and prerequisites, success criteria, and post-
test conditions, when applicable. A list of test assertions can be seen in Appendices B and C.
The following three sets of test assertions are included in this document:
+ PIV client API test assertions (see Section 3.1 for overview)
+ PIV card command interface test assertions (per Section 3.2.1)
+ PIV data objects accessibility and storage test assertions (per Section 3.2.2)
An overview of each of the above classes of test assertions is given in Sections 5.2 through 5.4.
5.1 Mapping from Test Categories to Test Assertions
All the DTRs in Appendix A conceptually come under one of the two broad categories of tests
stated in Section 3 i..e.., PIV middleware tests and PIV card application tests. Similarly, each
test assertion makes specific references to the related sections in SP 800-73-2 or the related
DTRs. However, overall there is many-to-many mapping from the test suite elements
(individual tests) under each of these two broad categories of tests to the DTRs (i.e., one test can
map to many DTRs and one DTR can map to many tests). A similar type of relationship exists
between DTRs and test assertions. To narrow the search space for cross references, Table 5-1
presents a cross-referencing guide showing the relevant DTR sections (with the section in SP
800-73-2 document from which they were derived) and test assertion sections with respect to test
classes in the two broad categories of tests.
Category/Classes of Test DTR Section(s) Test Assertion Section(s)
(1) PIV Middleware Tests (Section
3.1)
A.4 PIV End-Point Client API (Part 3
of SP 800-73-2)
Appendix B—PIV Client API Test
Assertions
(2a) PIV Card Application Tests—
PIV Card Application Card
Command Interface Tests (Section
3.2.1)
(1) A.1 End-Point Concepts and
Constructs (Ch 2, Part 2, of SP 800-
73-2)
(2) A.5 End-Point PIV Card
Application Card Command Interface
(Ch 3, Part 2 of SP 800-73-2)
Appendix C—PIV Card Command
Interface Test Assertions
(2b) PIV Card Application Tests—
PIV Data Object s Accessibility and
Storage Tests (Section 3.2.2)
(1) A.2 End-Point PIV Data Objects
Representation (Ch 4, Part 1 of SP
800-73-2)
(2) A.3 End-Point Data Types and
Their Representation (Ch 5, Part 1
of SP 800-73-2, and Part 2 of SP
800-73-2)
Appendix C—PIV Data Objects
Accessibility and Storage Test
Assertions
Table 5-1. Cross-referencing Guide
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